2022-11-24 A Prayer: Guide

O Lord, cultivate in us life where there is barrenness. Hold us, Lord, as we scarcely can face some truth, when it blindsides us: the truth of being simply disliked or forgotten. Lord, we see friends and do not forget to thank You for such friendship, for the “Staying in communicado” of people with whom we’ve shared, or been welcomed in, or had heartfelt outlay made towards us, towards meek us, towards cautious us, towards nervous us. See that we live no longer under a lie, but in plain sight now that this thing called Sin is evoked. We draw nearer to that hearth called Truth. We dwell nearer to that decision to thrive, at least, to hope, against manifest odds.

See us simply putting our faith not in tomorrow’s encounters, but in the debts paid by You today. See us cajoled, nursed, by a nursemaid in You who is urgent and about the business, who sees things we frighten away from, the odds stacked against us, the simple prejudices against us, the long view sometimes afforded us wherein only our usefulness to others seems to be appreciated, not plain “us” in who and what we are. People point to lifestyle or to tradition, but all that seems just an excuse to indulge the squirmish dislike or boredom. People are bored with anything that isn’t their own grandstanding, almost?

So grant us this season always to speak from a Passed Over domain, a Resurrected honesty, an Exuberant outlay. Help us strengthen; O Lord, no sooner do we do that, then we are mocked with faux-friendliness, as though we weren’t hip to deeper truths. Help us always to remember Your Cross, that we go there Anointed, because we are of usefulness now to the community. We draw towards us longings and hopes and the occasional supplicant, curious, spirit in a fellow woman or man. We are hazarding dangerous climes, but have Your lead and Your handhold. Help us thus to fellowship, suddenly made leader and guide in meek ways, when all we did was to pray an honest prayer.

We pray all this in Your Name, Amen.